Finance Ministry Received 38,068 E-mails: An email address launched by Finance Ministry for getting tips over black money received 38,068 e-mails. Only 16% of them were sent for further inquiry, said Central Board of Direct Taxation(CBDT). The e-mail address ‘[email protected]’ was launched in December 2016 to get the information about black money.

A city based Right to Information activist, Jitendra Ghadge asked about the black money information and about the response to the e-mail address. In response to that, CBDT responded, “38,068 emails were received, and 6,050 or about 16 per cent of them+ were forwarded to the respective Director Generals Of Income Tax (Investigation) for further inquiry. The remaining 32,018 emails were closed without any action.”

Ghadge also asked about the false e-mails received for which CBDT responded, “subject to completion of investigation.” In a report from Economic Times, Ghadge said, “Over 84 per cent tip-offs have been closed without any inquiry. This shows that either most emails were frivolous, or the authorities did not take them seriously, or may be shortage of staff forced them to do so.”